The Clarke Bookworms - Clarke Historical Museum Book Club
Click here to sign up for April's Book Club
Join us on Saturday, April 10th at 3pm PDT via Zoom for a discussion of our April Selection, Secret of the Stars, the debut novel of Indigenous author Gitz Crazyboy. This YA novel has received praise across North America, including a review by Winona LaDuke!
Secret of the Stars is about a young man's journey to find four fallen stars. After watching the stars falling to earth, he is whisked into the land of dreams where he is told that the discovery of each star will also reveal one of life's many secrets. A voyage that takes him across distant lands, into the realm of dreams, and back again. Ultimately the young man begins to understand the deeper purpose of why he was put on this path and what finding all the stars truly means. A story about the wondrous places your dreams can take you.
Secret of the Stars is about a young man's journey to find four fallen stars. After watching the stars falling to earth, he is whisked into the land of dreams where he is told that the discovery of each star will also reveal one of life's many secrets. A voyage that takes him across distant lands, into the realm of dreams, and back again. Ultimately the young man begins to understand the deeper purpose of why he was put on this path and what finding all the stars truly means. A story about the wondrous places your dreams can take you.
The Bookworms' Past Reads
March's read was Grave Matters , the history of the treatment of native remains in California and the story of the complicated relationship between researcher and researched. Tony Platt begins his journey with his son's funeral at Big Lagoon, a seaside village in pastoral Humboldt County in Northern California, once O-pyúweg, a bustling center for the Yurok and the site of a plundered native cemetery. Platt travels the globe in search of the answer to the question, How do we reconcile a place of extraordinary beauty with its horrific past? Grave Matters centers around the Yurok people and the eventual movement to repatriate remains and reclaim ancient rights, but it is also a universal story of coming to terms with the painful legacy of a sorrowful past.
February's non-fiction selection, Me Sexy, is a selection of thought-provoking essays dealing with Indigenous sexuality. Cree really the sexiest of all languages? Do Native people have less or more public hair? Does Inuit sex have a dark side? These are some of the questions answered in this witty, thoughtful collection. Twelve important voices in the Native culture — including Joseph Boyden, author of Three Day Road, and Marissa Crazytrain, a descendant of Chief Sitting Bull — tackle a variety of previously taboo subjects with humor and insight. Noted comic writer and editor Drew Hayden Taylor wraps it up with an original contribution of his own.
The Marrow Thieves, February's fiction read, is an engrossing YA Dystopian novel set in a future where humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming. And now, an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. Highly recommended for all ages!
January's non-fiction selection, We Are Dancing For You focuses on the revitalization of women's coming of age ceremonies in Northern California, specifically in the Hupa tribe; it talks about the power of reclaiming these ceremonies and the positive impact it has on these communities.
There, There, January's fiction selection, looks at the lives of different Native folks living in the bay area (Urban Indians) and the way their stories come together at a powwow in Oakland. It was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.